Dominic Summers
August 29, 2012 - 09:41
Fernanda Milan was raped after being placed in the men's dormitory; now she
faces deportation to Guatemala

More than 200 people attended a rally on Saturday protesting the decision to
deport a transgender asylum seeker. The trans-woman, Fernanda Milan, is due to
be sent back to Guatemala on September 17 after her application for asylum was
rejected.

While in Denmark, Milan was raped in Sandholm Asylum Centre, a facility
operated by the Danish Red Cross.

"I was very touched by how supportive the crowd was, telling me how brave I
was," Milan told The Copenhagen Post. "It was also impressive to see a lot of
non-LGBT people as well. People do really care, they came to protest and are
very angry about it."

In Guatemala, Milan had been campaigning on television and in the press to
highlight the grave treatment transgender people are subjected to in her
country. After becoming a very public activist in a nation dominated by
Catholicism and conservative views, she was forced to flee her country in 2009.

After arriving in this country via Switzerland, she made contact with LGBT
Denmark, which supported her asylum request.

Under Danish law, Milan is classified as a man so authorities placed her in
the male section of Sandholm. Despite being given a separate dormitory, other
detainees were able to break in to her room and rape her.

"I wasn't raped by just one man but by many," she told Politiken newspaper
earlier this month.

Milan was due to share the room with another trans-woman in Sandholm, but the
latter refused to be placed amongst men and instead slept in a car.

After the attack at Sandholm, Milan fled the centre and was trafficked into
prostitution for two years. Police discovered her during a raid on a brothel in
Jutland.

"There is a lot of ignorance and a lack of information within the system about
treatment of trans-people," she told The Copenhagen Post. "This was a surprise
from what I had heard about Denmark."

Born a man, Milan had been receiving hormone treatment since she was 14-years-
old. Because she was unable to receive the treatment after leaving Guatemala,
she was no longer consider transgender by the Danish medical definition. She
continues to live and self-identify as a woman, but that wasn't enough to earn
her a spot in the women's dormitory in Sandholm.

"A transgender woman is likely to be placed in a male dormitory but in a
single room," Anne La Cour, head of the Danish Red Cross asylum department,
told Politiken. "But we would not place her in a women's dormitory because that
is exclusively for women and we cannot permit ourselves to place a man."

Milan, however, rejected La Cour's explanation, saying that she has been
living and sharing facilities with other women in a Copenhagen shelter run by
Reden International, an anti-trafficking organisation, without any problems or
complaints for a year and a half.

Denmark does grant asylum to LGBT refugees but bases decisions on secondary
and protection issues. After her application rejection, Milan fears what will
happen when returned to Guatemala.

"It's very dangerous. I could be kidnapped, tortured or even murdered. I am
panicking and I'm extremely scared."

An online petition calling for the decision to be reversed has attracted over
1,800 signatures from around the world.

LGBT Denmark conceded that the petition will have no influence on the decision
to reject her asylum application as it is nearly impossible to get a case
reopened.

"The decision of an asylum case concerns the position of the asylum seeker in
the country of origin," Søren Laursen, a spokesperson from the organisation,
told The Copenhagen Post. "The petition may send a signal to the politicians,
but of course they do not influence the court either."

Acknowledging a European wide problem, Laursen added, "Denmark is rejecting
some of the most vulnerable and persecuted refugees and that one reason for
this is a lack of understanding of trans-persons and gender identity."

LGBT Denmark is currently working with the Danish Red Cross to help them
better understand the special needs of transgender asylum seekers.

For the first time, a theatre play on homosexuality is being staged in Uganda,
a country which has proposed an Anti-Homosexuality Bill. With The River & the
Mountain, the actors hope to make their audience reflect. "In Ugandan society,
we hide so many things. Why not talk about it?", says one of the actors.

By Mark Schenkel, Kampala

28-year-old award-winning actor Okuyo Joel Atiku Prynce is the first-ever
actor to play a homosexual on stage in Uganda. He has already received numerous
criticisms about his latest move in his career, among others being accused of
"being funded by gay lobby groups." But that does not deter him. "I am not into
gay advocacy. Although with this play, we do want to make people understand
that we are all human," he says. "We should not judge, segregate, harm or kill
others."

Condemnation
Uganda is a country where gays and same-sex relationships are far from being
accepted and are regularly condemned by conservative pastors and politicians.

The River & the Mountain premiered on 18 August in a little-known cultural
centre in Kampala called Tilapia and runs until Sunday 26. It is a
collaboration between a group of local actors, Oxford-educated poet, Beau
Hopkins, who wrote the script, and Tilapia manager, David Cecil. The play will
"hopefully get people to talk about homosexuality, which already helps to
reduce the stigma," says Phiona Katushabe (24), one of the originators.

Avoiding ideology
However, it has not created the sort of public stir that may have been
expected given its controversial subject. Those involved in the play believe it
is partially because it has deliberately been kept low-key. Not out of fear for
repercussions but "to avoid being dragged into the ideological debate with, on
one side, Uganda's vocal pastors and, on the other, the international liberal
human rights organizations," says Katushabe. "All we want is our audience to
make up its own mind."
But, apparently, it did cause a sense of uneasiness at the National Theatre,
Kampala's main venue. At the last minute, the Theatre backed away from hosting
the play, after having agreed earlier to do so. The actors were told a
"clearance" from Uganda's Media Council was not issued. "The refusal of
National Theatre only motivated me further,"says Rehema Nanfuka (26), a well-
known actress and radio-presenter who is in the cast.

Challenging beliefs
The River & the Mountain revolves around Samson (played by Prynce), a young
man who is focused on his career in a cooking oil factory, much to the despair
of his mother. All she wants for him is a suitable wife. Samson is forced to
'cure' himself of his homosexuality by undergoing treatment with a pastor, a
witch-doctor and a Ssenga - a 'sex-aunt' who, in traditional Buganda-culture,
initiates young girls. All attempts fail because Samson says that being
homosexual is "how I was born."

In the end, after having had his coming-out, Samson is killed by his own
factory workers with machetes. But it is his girlfriend Aidah (played by Aidah
Nalubowa) who brings hope to the story because she accepts Samson's the way he
is. Aidah represents the 'river' which stands for openness, for being connected
to the open seas that historically brought new influences. The 'mountain'
symbolizes secluded, withdrawn people, scared of the unknown.

Understanding
Katushabe: "Some of my anti-gay friends who have seen the play now show more
understanding." Nanfuka says the same goes for her. "I never had any problem
with gay people but I used to ask myself why they should feel the need to come
out. Now, I feel they should. In Ugandan society, we hide so many things. Why
not talk about it?"

The River & the Mountain is attracting several dozens of spectators every
evening, including many Western expatriates. The good thing is that so far,
only two members of the public have walked out of the performance. The first
one, an anti-gay and the second a pro-gay. The latter was apparently too
affected by Samson's fate.

The last two performances, this weekend, will be at MishMash, an uptown
cultural venue mainly visited by expatriates. Are the organizers not afraid
they will give conservative Ugandans one more reason to believe that gay people
are 'stooges' of ultra-liberal Westerners with a secret 'gay-agenda'?" Prynce's
response: "That argument is being used against us anyway. I am not afraid. This
play will help change Ugandan society."

By Joanne Chan
SINGAPORE: The High Court is set to hear whether a section of the law which criminalises gay sex is unconstitutional. This follows a ruling by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday on a bid by Tan Eng Hong to have Section 377A of the Penal Code declared unconstitutional.This section of the law states that a man who commits any act of gross indecency with another man shall be punished.Tuesday's ruling overturns an earlier High Court decision, which had upheld the move by the assistant registrar to strike out the application.Tan was arrested for having oral sex with another man at a public toilet in CityLink Mall on March 9, 2010.

Hacktivist groups The Elite Society and Anonymous launch a joint operation to hack any African country that imprisons or kills LGBT peopleBY DAN LITTAUER
The Anonymous and The Elite Society hacking groups have launched a joint all-out attack against countries in Africa that kill or imprison LGBT people in an operation dubbed #OpFuckAfrica.So far websites in Botswana, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda have been taken down or their databases have been leaked.

ADDIS ABABA: Halle and Salma are typical university students in Ethiopia. They
love to hang out with friends, watch the Olympics and be happy. But they are
separated from the rest of society as a result of their being lesbians.

"Life is hard for us," began 22-year-old Salma, a Muslim, "because our parents
have thrown us out of our homes and we face violence and attacks because we
love each other."

The pair, sitting at Salma's brother's house in the Ethiopian capital, hand in
hand, watches the athletics competition in London, where Ethiopia female
runners have shown their world-class status.

"It is great for Ethiopia to show we are proud of our runners," Halle, a
Christian 21-year-old, told Bikyamasr.com. "It is just unfortunate that we face
discrimination because we are not straight."

The pair has been together for three years, since meeting in university, but
their struggle has seen few supporters, which makes Mohammed, Salma's brother,
the only outlet for their safety.

"Mohammed has been amazing," began Halle, "without him we would not have been
able to be safe and be with each other."

For Mohammed, he believes that much of the antagonism toward the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Ethiopia and Africa is a result of
"the fact that so many people just are scared because they have never met a gay
person. Once you do that and realize they are not much different from us all,
it isn't a big deal."

He doesn't tell his parents, especially his father, that he houses the couple,
fearing that if he did, his father would take action.

"I think he would probably kill me or them, so I don't say a word and they
never ask about Salma," he admitted.

Halle and Salma are hopeful that perceptions of the gay community are changing
in the country, but it is slow and they face an uphill battle against the
government and the media.

"All we want are our rights as citizens. To love who we want. We are not
dangerous and we don't destroy society as the reports say," Salma argued.

Their worries over their safety were again heightened in June, when a local
Ethiopian daily newspaper reported that the United States and Europe are
looking to spread and promote homosexuality in the East African country.

The Yenga daily wrote, in a June 18 article, that "gayness" was growing
dramatically in the country and the "infestation of those carriers" are now at
least 16,000 people.

The "report" went on to argue that gay persons have an average of 75 partners
annually and that this "promiscuous" nature sees some gay people have as many
as 7 partners in one day.

The article described how such "practices" are being "imported" to Ethiopia
through students who receive scholarships to study in the United States and
Europe.

"I don't know about the report and where they get their crazy statistics,"
said Mohammed, "but as I have met more and more gay and lesbian people, I
realize they have strong relationships than us straight people right now. They
aren't going crazy. They deserve their rights."

Indonesian transsexuals, or Warias, still feel the urge to practice Islam
despite being shunned by Islamic Authorities.

We headed to Indonesia to visit the Senin-Kamis School, an Islamic school for
Indonesian transsexuals. Our host, Hannah Brooks, meets the school's founder,
Maryani, and the rest of the ladies who call this place home. Then Hannah is
taken to a local funeral, where Maryani speaks about the difficulties of living
as a transvestite and a practicing Muslim.

For several weeks and with great excitement Ugandan LGBT activists have been
building a Beach Pride event. The idea was to celebrate with friends and to
hold a private party for those who wanted to attend. Activists kept the Pride
event under wraps and a few of us bloggers in the international community, who
had knowledge of it, decided not to report the event until it was successfully
over.

However it would seem that the police persecution included spying on the
privacy of the group of activists who had been organizing the event as a
private party. Instead of reporting purely on its success I have to report on
the unwarranted arrests.

Yet in doing so and after speaking to activists, I soon realized that even
with police harassment, the event was full of fun and pride, with its success
enhanced by the unyielding and brave determination of a group of people so
severely persecuted.

In Uganda it is illegal to commit an act "against the order of nature."
Homosexuality has been interpreted as illegal under this definition. But
nowhere is it legal to break up an innocent party, even if the attendees
proclaim to be LGBT. The law seeking to ban the so called and ill defined
"promotion of homosexuality" has yet to pass Parliament.

Nonetheless Entebbe police raided the party and have arrested my friends.

Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) under the strongest terms condemns the raid of
the Uganda Beach Pride Parade and arrest of Human and gay rights activists, who
included the Director of FARUG and the coordinator of Pride Uganda; Kasha
Jacqueline Nabagesera, Jay Abang; the programs manager of FARUG; Ms. Stella
Nyanzi; a Human Rights Defender; Sandra Ntebi and Julie; Lerato a South African
on media team, Rachael Adams and visitors from other counties.

Police stormed the venue where people had gathered after a beach march and
ordered the party to stop and that no one should leave the area.

Police are believed to have been tipped off by either a small group of
Christians who were for baptism a few yards away or by the local of the area
who had gathered to witness the pride event. However according to word I have
received the police told activists that they were arrested because of "orders
from above." This indicates the authorities were spying on organizers and knew
about the event which was not made public. Iy also indicates a continued drive
to persecute the LGBT community in Uganda, regardless of the legality of the
gatherings.

Police alleged that there was a gay marriage taking place and that two gay men
were seen kissing. They then declared that the gathering was unlawful and
wanted to arrest the whole group.

Kasha and group then volunteered to go to the police station to give a
statement. Upon arrival, they found another group that was part of the pride
team that had prior been arrested.

By press time, they had been all been released. In an interview with Jay
Abang, she said "…I feel like our rights have been trampled upon. It is
becoming a habit of police to interrupt our gatherings. It is as if a section
of Ugandans do not deserve certain rights. The laws and bills have not been
passed but police is already enforcing them"

It should be noted that police have so far raided and closed down two
workshops that have been organized and attended by members of the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community in Uganda, earlier this
year, one being a capacity building workshop which was organized by FARUG in
February and another which was organized by the East and Horn of Africa Human
Rights Defenders in June.

FARUG is urging that the entire LGBTI community to remain steadfast and strong
and continue with all the remaining activities planned for Pride parade and
film festival Uganda. this should not derail us form our objective of pride.

We call upon the judicial system of Uganda to order an injunction against
interruption of any activities organized and participated in by the LGBTI
community in Uganda.

"We call upon human rights activist, civil society, the nation and the
international community to condemn police rampant and unlawful arrests of gay
rights activists."

The Ugandan activists are amongst the most profoundly courageous human rights
campaigners I have yet experienced.

The amazing part of this story is that activists did not allow the arrests to
stop the proceedings and a Pride event went on regardless with the continuation
of the planned after party. The sad part was that Kasha, due to her detention
was unable to attend. I checked in with her. She has been released and is doing
well. But it was a great day for her she said, adding the fact that she had the
great honor to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is visiting
Uganda.

" We are going strong till we end our planned activities," Kasha told me.
"Even as I was put on the police van I kept telling our people do not be
intimidated and that they should keep going on until pride is officially over."

"Can you imagine that the worst place in the world to be gay is having Gay
Pride?" Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera asked a crowd of cheering gay men,
lesbians, transgendered men and women, and queers somewhere in between. It was
Saturday afternoon, and we were on the shores of the giant, cloudy Lake
Victoria in the Ugandan city of Entebbe, where L.G.B.T. activists had decided
to stage the country's first Pride Parade. Nabagesera, a lesbian activist
covered, for the occasion, in glitter and neon spray paint, with homemade angel
wings, was being half-sarcastic. A barrage of media coverage has painted the
country as a hell for gays—a place where they are suffering and being attacked
constantly—and, despite the need to combat such threats, L.G.B.T. Ugandans were
tired of hearing a story that ignored their nuanced experiences of both joy and
hardship. But Nabagesera was also sincerely pleased: a crowd of nearly a
hundred people had come out, fears of arrest notwithstanding, to celebrate
their existence. The air was thick with confetti, paint fumes, and
anticipation.
I've spent a couple of months this year working on a story about gay rights
here, as an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow, and was surprised to see that
the narrative had made yet another unexpected turn. Though activists are in the
middle of a lawsuit they filed against ethics and integrity minister Simon
Lokodo, who has been on a zealous effort to shut down all gay-advocacy
workshops and non-profits allied with L.G.B.T. activists, spirits were high to
the point that a Pride event was not just wanted, but needed. Uganda's Pride
was a weekend-long event, made up of film screenings, a fashion show in drag,
and all-night (and into the morning) parties. Two hundred and fifty tickets had
been sold, though, as a vivacious trans woman named Cleo told me, fifty-some
people showed up on Thursday and Friday, because many were still wary about
gathering in large groups. "We couldn't have done this kind of thing two years
ago, and for those that were here back then, they almost can't believe things
are safer and better now," Cleo said. The first two days went off without a
hitch, and more people, predictably, showed up for the evening bacchanals.
I took a bus from Kampala, the capital, to Entebbe on Saturday morning with a
number of the participants. A trans woman named Bad Black showed me glamour
photos taken of her at an L.G.B.T.-friendly studio in town: in them she is
wearing a wig, dresses, and lingerie. Bad Black, who helps run a foundation
that helps H.I.V.-positive L.G.B.T. Ugandans, was wearing typical male attire
for the bus ride, but wore gold earrings and had short, fluffy curls. She can't
dress as a woman on a daily basis, but planned to change once we got to the
lake. Nature, a cheerful trans woman sitting in front of us, plucked a photo to
admire it and remarked, "Hmm, photos do lie." The bus erupted into laughter.
Several people, adorned in rainbow-patterned scarves and armbands, pulled out
makeup compacts and started to apply bright eye shadow and lipstick. We made
noisy stops along the highway to pick up more attendees, and passersby, curious
about the laughter and music, peered inside.
The botanical grounds around the lake are a languid picnic destination for
families and couples, but relatively secluded: an ideal location for a parade
that was still on shaky ground, safety-wise. At the area reserved for the
festival, participants wore yellow wristbands to identify themselves to each
other and let loose. People swam, drank, and danced as a D.J. played loud
music. I met people like Akram, who operates a "gay-video library." Activist
Frank Mugisha, who appeared dressed in a sailor's costume with a rainbow sash
and called himself Captain Pride, told me, "I just wish I had a switch to turn
on that would make everyone who's gay say they are gay. Then everyone who is
homophobic can realize their brothers, their sisters, and their aunts are gay."
He confessed that he was shocked to see so many people in attendance.
As the parade began, in a convoy of marchers and cars blasting more music,
people held up signs like "African and Gay. Not a Choice." Children who lived
nearby flocked to the parade, and adults stared, clearly stunned, and, in some
cases, amused. The marchers chanted, "We are here" (a reference to those who
say that there are no gays in Africa), and danced and sang in a chorus that was
at once moving and exciting under a rainstorm of ribbons and flags. Nabagesera'
s German shepherd trotted around in a rainbow-colored handkerchief. A woman
named Claire said, "Even if Lokodo came today, he could not stop us."
But Lokodo did come, or at least the police did. Hours after the parade ended,
police raided the gathering, supposedly because they had heard a gay wedding
was taking place, and arrested three participants, detained a photographer, and
demanded statements from others, reminding all of the threats that gays still
face. The station police chief eventually released them, and celebrations
continued in Kampala. On Sunday, closing events went as planned. One
participant, Ambrose, who was in charge of selling Pride-themed T-shirts,
explained that the dynamics of being gay in Uganda have changed: "This is who
we are. We are here to stay. And we are not going anywhere."

The President of Hungary signed the new Hungarian Criminal Code on July 13,
2012, which specifically includes references to sexual orientation and gender
identity in its provisions on hate speech and hate crime and does away with
degrading terminology on same-sex sexual relations. The law will enter into
force on July 1, 2013.
Preparatory work for a new Criminal Code to replace the heavily modified
current legislation originally passed in 1978 started back in 2001. The new
Code stretches over 120 pages and contains several provisions directly
affecting LGBT people.
Following intensive lobbying by LGBT and human rights NGOs, the new Code
extends the groups specifically covered by hate speech and hate crime
provisions. While homophobic and transphobic hate has – in theory – been
punishable under current legislation which sanctions incitement to hatred
against certain group of the population and assault and coercion committed
because of the victim's belonging to a certain group of the population, unlike
race, ethnicity and religion, sexual orientation and gender identity has so far
not been specifically mentioned in the relevant provisions. The new Code
extends the groups specifically covered to include sexual orientation, gender
identity and disability.
The new law also reforms the terminology and categorization of sexual
offences: while the previous legislation was based on a strong separation
between vaginal intercourse and any other form of sexual activity, the new
legislation does not differentiate between forms of sexual activity. This also
means that the degrading terminology used in Hungarian criminal law for
centuries to name sexual activities other than vaginal intercourse – including
any form of same-sex sexual activity – ("fajtalanság", literal translation:
"racelessness") will no longer be in use. The age of consent will remain 14
years equally for same- and different-sex sexual relations.
LGBT groups have strongly criticized the law for diverging from current
legislation on bigamy: while the Criminal Code in force treats marriage and
registered partnership in the same way, thus entering into a new marriage or
registered partnership while someone is still married to or in a registered
partnership with another person was a criminal offence, the new legislation
maintains bigamy rules only for spouses. While the practical relevance of this
new provision is minimal, it demonstrates well the insistence of the
conservative government to distance heterosexual marriage from other family law
institutions.

On 30 July 2012, human rights defender Mr Maurice Mjomba was found dead in his
home in Dar es Salaam in suspicious circumstances.

Maurice Mjomba worked as a human rights defender with the Center for Human
Rights Promotion (CHRP), and he was also involved with several regional human
rights initiatives.

As a training coordinator at CHRP, Maurice Mjomba's work generally focused on
combating discrimination against people infected with HIV and AIDS and on
providing support to intra-venous drug users. He was also affiliated with
various regional coalitions dealing with sexual health awareness for sexual
minorities.

Maurice Mjomba's body was found when neighbours detected a strong odour coming
from his home, and upon finding his house locked, they called the police. The
body showed signs of beating and strangulation, suggesting that he might have
been murdered. He had last been seen on Friday, 27 July. An autopsy is to be
carried out on 31 July in order to determine the cause of death.

Front Line Defenders offers its sincere condolences to the family and friends
of Maurice Mjomba and urges the Tanzanian authorities to carry out an impartial
and effective investigation into his death.